When youre trying to capture the moment of a lifetime, you cant afford to take any chances. So when Josh Wiese and his teammates set out to film the solar eclipse this week - the first total eclipse to cross the US coast-to-coast for almost a century - he knew hed need a lot of research and equipment he could count upon.
The stunning results surprised even the cameraman: The first time I saw the ring around the sun, I was looking at the recorder. Right as the totality happened I pulled the solar filter out - and to see what I saw on the screen took my breath away. Id tried to picture it, but it was more breath-taking than I could have even imagined, said Wiese, who was working with his boss and his brother Jeremy Wiese, and their colleague Prestin Apsley. Together they usually make marketing and instructional videos for the Northwest Lineman College, which trains workers for the power industry.
The team used a Sony FS7 with their trusted Atomos Ninja Flame monitor recorder and a rented Nikon 600mm lens with a doubler on it, taking the lens to 1200mm. They also needed a special white light solar filter to expose properly and prevent damage to their equipment. They shot at 4k at 24 frames a second internally on the FS7 and simultaneously to the Ninja Flame, recording in ProRes 422 - creating two copies of the footage to insure against any mishaps. Their last bit of kit was lower-tech: a generator to make sure they didnt run out of juice at a critical moment.
Having the Ninja Flame on the top allowed Wiese to follow the sun much more accurately: Even just finding the sun is crazy difficult, he explains.
The sun is moving pretty quick through the frame, so I was having to readjust during the totality. We had a Sachtler tripod, but even so, with that long of a lens, just touching any part of the camera is going to cause a shake. I needed to have something I could put to the top and follow along and not worry about touching my eye to the viewfinder.
He didnt use the Ninja Flame for their trial run the day before and found it a lot harder to find and follow the sun.
Exposure was also critical, as there were no second chances. Here the Ninja Flames waveform and zebra tools allowed Wiese to be sure his exposure was correct as the eclipse went on. The recorder helped him get my shot, make sure I wasnt overexposing, and do it without touching anything.
Even though an eclipse is all about darkness, the Atomos 1500nit high brightness screen came into its own as they set up their shots and filmed the early stages: As it got darker it got easier and easier to see [the screen]. But even in the bright sun, it was super-easy to see, from 15ft away - Id run over to the car to grab something and would be able to glance up and make sure everything was still in the frame.
Another thing that was really helpful with the recorder was being able to magnify the image, even while recording. I used magnification function and could see the sun spots and those are what I used to focus on the sun.
The crew bought the Ninja Flame after seeing it at the NAB show in April: Weve always made sure to stop by the Atomos booth and that has always been on our list of things to get and this year we made the plunge and brought it. Weve been using it pretty religiously ever since, said Wiese.
They spent over a fortnight researching and planning how best to capture the moment and scouting for locations, before settling on a quiet spot on a dead-end road just south of Payette, Idaho.
Asked why they went so such great lengths to get the shots Weise explains: We knew the eclipse would be amazing and thought if we shot something related to the industry it could be really shareable for social media - luckily our CEO loved the idea.
The Northwest Lineman College team shoot some pretty spectacular things in their line of work - climbing to the top of transmission towers to film, or capturing electrical arcs in slow-mo. Even so, Weise described the eclipse as probably the most beautiful thing Ive ever filmed.
The Ninja Flame made sure I was getting the shot I wanted and, especially being able to record for hours, was an invaluable tool to capture this experience that you cant really plan for; you just have to rely on your tools and research. It might have been possible without it - but it definitely increased my chances of success in nailing the shot.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
When youre trying to capture the moment of a lifetime, you cant afford to take any chances. So when Josh Wiese and his teammates set out to film the solar eclipse this week - the first total eclipse to cross the US coast-to-coast for almost a century - he knew hed need a lot of research and equipment he could count upon.
